


a curse of two

by marreena



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 01:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10426623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marreena/pseuds/marreena
Summary: Twins are a curse in Taako's family and he's thankful he dodged that bullet.





	

**Author's Note:**

> just a small drabble that was surprisingly written before the new ep mixing in voidfish fun
> 
> anyway? now it's spoilers? so thanks @ griff i owe you my life
> 
> btw (this) means that taako was forced to forget it thanks to the void fish in case it wasn't clear!

Twins supposedly skipping generations was bullshit if Taako ever heard any. 

His two great aunties. 

His mother and his aunt. 

His cousins. 

His own—(twin). 

Even before he understood the concept of twins, he thought everyone had a double. If there wasn’t his mom to hold him, his _other_  mom was right there holding him. Same face, same voice, the only difference is that it didn’t _feel_  right and honestly that isn’t must evidence from a baby. 

He kinda thought that everyone had a double—

(He did have one and he couldn’t imagine _not_ having her. She was always there kicking him, holding his hand, stealing his blanket. Didn’t everyone have someone like her? What would it be like to actually be alone?)

Twins ran in the family, and it was a curse. 

Something that made Taako swear even more off of children than he already was. 

His Auntie would fight him on that fact. Telling him how _grand_ and _blessed_ and _magical_  it was to have a twin, someone that you could always count on no matter what. Someone who always knew you better than you did—which sounds like horseshit because he’s the only one that really gets _Taako_. 

Sounds like a fucking curse to Taako. He’d hate to have someone like that. It doesn’t suite him. 

(Lup fucking lost it when he told her that. _Sure_ , he hated it but he _needed_  her. And she grinned and grinned the rest of the night, egging him about how much he _really didn’t need her_. He would scoff and shrug his shoulders at her, throwing her off, repeating what he said earlier. _She’s a fucking curse if he’s ever known one)_. 

His Auntie would simply flick his nose for cursing and then tell him to go back and study before his mom got back from the market. Taako, of course, never did. He had a much better time spent kicking a rock around with the other kids. Now, he kinda wishes he had done what his Auntie and Mom had wanted and actually studied those books before everything had gone to hell with the plague. 

(It sucked years later with him and Lup crouched underneath a tree desperately trying to keep the few spell books dry in the storm. Lup still couldn’t control her fire yet—all she could do was explode stuff and that was cool and all but not really that useful. That first year without his parents and family was the _worst_. Magic still evaded them and no one really wanted to hire a couple of twelve year olds.) 

In an attempt to convince Taako that he was wrong—something that rarely happened, even when he was younger—she always brought up his Great Aunties. Both of which lost their respective partners years ago and now lived together in the community, relying on his family to take care of them— _exhausting_ for Taako. 

On a late summer day, when he had been lying on his mom’s lap, his Auntie and dad had come in with tears in their eyes. Great Auntie So had died—(the first one taken by the blight, he had kept on hissing to Lup after they had been forced to leave, _they should have known_ )—during the night. 

By that evening, Great Auntie Pilla also passed. 

His Auntie, ever the cursed romantic, claimed that it was impossible to live without your twin. 

  
_Shouldn’t ever be that reliant on someone_ , he had told his family a couple nights later. His mom gaped at how crass he was but his Auntie just scowled, knowing how he could be. (Lup had snickered at that, only for him to try and hit her and her hitting him back until their mother stepped in.) 

His Auntie kept telling him that it was a blessing to have a twin even after his mom died and he had to look her in the face and see _her_  every single time like a ghost followed him. He _hated_ it. That’s not how he remembered the last moments with his mom that involved so much _blight_ —he doesn’t want to see it again, he doesn’t want to be reminded of it again. And maybe it was low of Taako, but he _hated_  looking at his Auntie. 

He hated her even more when she forced him— _(them)_ —to leave because it was a ghost’s face. 

And she had to die because her twin had died. She _had_ to.

She made him leave everyone and now he didn’t have a family anymore. It was just him, _him_ , him. All alone with no way to help himself. 

(Lup was pissed at that too. She had looked him straight in the eye, grabbing him by his collar with a firm, _I’m not dying yet, Taako_. _I’m twelve. I’m not going to fucking die and you’re not either. We’re not going to die, Taako_. And she cried, and he cried because they had lost everything except for a couple of spell books and some supplies that weren’t blighted.) 

No one wanted a twelve year old for _anything_ , Taako learned quick. It fucking sucked, so he had to learn how to make himself useful. Cooking wasn’t easy, but his Auntie made sure he knew it, and he could help a caravan’s cook.

So in New Elfington, when a traveling magic show hit up the town, he made sure he was the first one they saw when they got out. _Twins_ , he thought bitterly, seeing the two girls step out, in matching outfits and magic and all. Taako briefly considered backing out after he saw that.

But their magic was _mesmerizing_ , and the way that they transformed their caravan for the show was unlike anything that Taako had ever seen in his life. (Lup had been tightly gripping his arm, _we have to work for them,_ and she pushed them forward to the front of the crowd.) 

After their show, at night when most people had gone back home and there were only a few stragglers talking to the crew. Taako had approached them with just one request.

The twins cocked their heads at the same time, and then smiled at the same time, something that sent a chill down Taako’s spine, but whatever had to be better than sitting on people’s doorsteps. They cooed at him—(and Lup. Twins! So small and so cute! One of them had ran one hand through Lup’s dark curls and Taako nearly took a swing at her, only saved by Lup’s hand around his wrist grounding him. _This_  was better than being alone.)

They gave him a job as a handy boy and an assistant cook if they ever needed him—of course, they didn’t actually pay him anything but they gave him a home and that was more than enough. Even better they let him watch their shows. Magic wasn’t only used for keeping the home warm and keeping the door locked at night like how his parents used it—it could be used to flourish and _perform_. 

(Lup always cheered him on when he performed a little dance, planning out the shows that he— _they_  will have one day. Their _own_  caravan. Their _own_ crew. Everyone from all around the continent will want to come see _their_ show! Of course, maybe not just a magic show. It had to be _more_. It had to stand out. Him and Lup had time to figure that out, though.)

After a year, the twin performers broke up. The details evade him now as most of the other people who traveled with them refused to explain what caused the twins to fight and nearly tear up the entire caravan in the entire process. All he remembers is how they were able to spit out such fucking horrible things at each other. 

How horrible it’d be to have someone know you that well and hurt you that easily. 

(Lup manages to find a place for them on a trade caravan that next morning)—Taako is thankful that fucking family curse managed to skip him.

**Author's Note:**

> again thanks @ griff for my new love lup
> 
> also i originally wanted the voided text to be a diff color but html eats my ass


End file.
